Smartboy's Site

Software Development with a touch of creativity

Who am I?

Hello, my name is Alex Abbott, but I have also been known as "smartboyathome" online for several years. I am interested in various programming languages and software design patterns, and I oftentimes have a side project or two I am working on. I enjoy an occasional game of Magic the Gathering, though I don't do a lot of Friday Night Magic and am more of a casual player. When I am not busy with other things and not visiting my parents, I can oftentimes be found enjoying a long walk with my dog through the parks of the Leschi and surrounding neighborhoods in Seattle, WA (yes, even in the rain!). If you talk to me, you'll no doubt hear me mention at some point the various trivia I have learned about different TV shows and movies I have seen or heard about.

What do I do?

I am a Software Developer am currently employed by The Walt Disney Company to work on improving their Unified Messaging product. Disney is primarily a Java shop, though, being a vertical developer, I often work on both the client-facing website (JavaScript, CSS, HTML, with bits of C# and Visual Studio for testing and development), as well as the backend API and messaging pipeline services (Java, CXF, Servlets, Spring, MongoDB, Redis, Cassandra, and more). I may not be a master in any one area, but I provide flexibility to my team by being able to move between different components in the pipeline, as well as promoting synergy between those components I've worked on through learning about how they've solved problems.

What are my goals?

I have always viewed Software Development as a very creative discipline, almost, but not quite, an art form itself. As such, I tend to look for the best solutions to a software design challenge, given the requirements at hand, and am always wanting to add new design patterns to my toolbox. My hope right now is to get into the Software Architecture side of Software Development at some point, though this is many years down the road for me. Until then, I continue to learn more from my work and side projects and use those to hone my skills.